


Ashi’s Search

by nuttersincorporated



Category: Samurai Jack (Cartoon)
Genre: Brief mention of Ashi’s terrible childhood but again nothing explicit, Freeing people from slavery, Gen, Mentions of some of the things Jack has faced over the years, Nothing explicit, People trying to kill him, Season/Series 05 Spoilers, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 11:16:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10718301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuttersincorporated/pseuds/nuttersincorporated
Summary: Set between episodes 5 and 6 of the new season of Samurai Jack. This is how Ashi got from the factory with the blue children to the airship. She learns a little more about the Samurai who, until recently, she wanted to kill.





	Ashi’s Search

**Author's Note:**

> This was a Tumblr birthday gift story but I'm posting it here too for anyone who wants to to enjoy

Ashi didn’t know what to do. The Samurai had disappeared and she had no idea where he’d gone or why he had left.

He might have left to help more people but something in Ashi’s gut told her that wasn’t true. For the few short days that she’d known Jack as something other than an enemy, she had noticed a sort of deadness in his eyes that had frightened her. There was also the fact he’d told her that he no longer believed it was possible to defeat Aku. It was as if he had given up.

The blue children were all awake and groaning now and Ashi made a snap decision; before she did anything else, she had to take them back to what was left of their home.

“Children, follow me,” she commanded. They looked at her with slightly glazed expressions.

One of the older children blinked at Ashi in confusion, “Where are we and how did we get here?”

“You were used as weapons against Samurai Jack,” she told them. “We saved you and now it’s time to go home.”

“Samurai Jack!” some of the younger children squealed excitedly, looking around as if they expected him to be hiding in the shadows.

“Yes, but he couldn’t stay because had to go and save some other people,” Ashi lied. “He asked me to take you all home.” That seemed to do the trick. The children got to their feet and started following Ashi as she led them home.

Ashi’s eyes widened as she noticed some of the older children helping the younger ones along. None of the other children told them not to. They acted as if it was the natural thing to do.

Ashi felt her heart give a twinge of pain as she remembered her mother’s words about weakness and independence. These children weren’t weak just because they needed help, were they? Ashi had no idea what a child was supposed to be like. She only knew that her own childhood wasn’t like most people’s. She kept her mouth closed, afraid to say the wrong thing and led the way.

It didn’t take long. The factory wasn’t far from the remains of their old village. The parents who hadn’t been killed, ran over and threw their arms around their children, laughing and crying for joy. Some of the children looked around for parents that were no longer there to greet them and Ashi felt helpless, not knowing what to do.

“They will be looked after,” one of the older blue creatures reassured Ashi quietly. She looked at him and realised it was the one they had spoken to before going to save the children. He looked the worse for wear and a part of her was surprised that he was still alive. He gave her a small smile when he saw her expression. “We are a hardy race. We will survive.”

She nodded as if she understood then asked, “Did you see where Samurai Jack went?”

“He went that way,” the blue creature told her and pointed away from the village. “I saw him leave. He didn’t answer me when I asked about the children,” he looked concerned again.

“I will find him,” she vowed and the blue creature looked relieved.

“Good, that man needs a friend.”

Ashi almost flinched at the word friend. She didn’t even know how to be a friend but she was sure that she wouldn’t make a very good one. She also wasn’t sure how she felt about Jack yet. However, she said none of that out loud and merely thanked the creature for his help.

Ashi took one last look at the blue creatures. A part of her wanted to stay and help more but she turned and heading in the direction she’d been pointed.

As she walked Ashi wondered if she was imagining things. Perhaps Jack was fine. He might simply have decided that he’d taught her everything she needed to know and had left her to live her own life. He seemed a dangerous person to be around. Innocent people got hurt around him even if he didn’t want them too.

Maybe Jack was trying to protect her. If that was the case, he needn’t have bothered. Ashi could look after herself. She could even help if other innocent people were in danger because Jack came near them. Ashi wasn’t sure if Jack was a good person or if she liked him yet but some part of her knew she had to find him again.

Ashi couldn’t tell if it was her training that made her still feel weary of the Samurai. She’d spent her whole life, up until a few days ago, hating him. Would a good people let innocent people get hurt because of them? Just because she’d been wrong about Aku being good that didn’t mean she’d been completely wrong about Jack.

After a day and a half of traveling, eating what she could find and sleeping rough, Ashi came to a city of pods. Some of the pods were on land and others were bobbing in the sea. The pods seemed to be houses. The ones in the sea were contacted to the land and each other by bridges. Humans and some sort of tall green creatures, with long limbs, large heads and small bodies walked between the pods.

Not knowing what else to do, Ashi approached one of the green creatures and asked, “Have you seen Samurai Jack?”

Everyone within earshot stopped what they were doing and stared at her. Ashi held her head high and refused to look scared. She was reasonably sure that she’d be able to defend herself successfully, if they decided to attack.

“I asked a question.”

“Are you another one of Aku’s assassins?” the one she’d asked, asked her.

“No,” Ashi said after a moment’s hesitation. _Not any more,_ she added in her head. Out loud, Ashi told them, “I want to find him. I believe the Samurai might be in danger.”

Those around her relaxed.

“I doubt he is,” one of the green creatures told her. “There’s nothing he can’t handle but yes, he was here not long ago. I’ll show you where he went.”

“Thank you,” she said as she followed him.

“You’re in luck,” he told her. “Until yesterday, none of us had seen Jack in almost half a century. We are Triceraquins. Aku forced our parents to live at the bottom of the ocean. One day, Aku promised he would let my people live on the surface again if they killed Samurai Jack. They agreed because we were dying out living at the bottom of the sea.

“Our parents pretended to be Jack’s friends but they betrayed him and tried to kill him. Then Aku went back on his promise. Jack escaped, defeated Aku and liberated our parents even though they’d tried to kill him. He forgave them straight away.”

“Thank you for telling me,” Ashi said honestly. She felt that she knew the Samurai a little better now. Though she was still weary of him. Yes, he had helped them but perhaps they wouldn’t have been in that situation to begin with if Aku hadn’t wanted him dead.

“You’re welcome,” he told her. They were walking across bridges over the water by now. The Triceraquin pointed to a statue of Jack, the bottom half was under the water and the top half was covered in algae and seaweed. “We built that statue to remember him.”

They reached a collection of small rowing boats, “Jack took one of these and headed left along the cost. You can take a boat if you like. Any friend of Jack is a friend of ours.”

“Thank you,” Ashi said again. She didn’t comment on the Triceraquin’s assumption that she was Jack’s friend. She still didn’t know how she felt about Jack. ‘Friend’ seemed to be a word people used a lot.

Ashi got into one of the boats, untied it and started to row.

Perhaps it was only selfishness that made her want to find him, she thought. Jack was the only constant thing Ashi knew. He was the one point of reference she had in a world that was the opposite of everything she’s spent her whole life believing.

Ashi rowed and rowed until she came to another town along the coast. She tied up her boat at a jetty and started to search the town for Jack. However, it was getting late. In the end, Ashi led down on a bench and fell asleep.

A few hours later Ashi was woken by something jumping up and down on her chest. She opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was that it was still dark but the sun was just starting to tinge the horizon. The second thing she noticed was that she was surrounded by small furry creatures. They were brown, about the size of her head and had long tails and big ears.

“Are you the one who’s looking for Samurai Jack?” the creature on her chest asked is a squeaky high pitched voice.

“Yes, do you know where he is?”

“We won’t let you hurt him!” the creature squeaked defiantly.

“I do not want to,” Ashi said reassuringly. Samurai Jack certainly seemed to inspire loyalty. “I’m going to sit up now, okay?” The creature nodded and scampered off her.

Ashi sat up slowly, careful not to bump any of them. They were stood on the ground around her bench and most of them still had mistrustful expressions on their faces.

“Are you his enemy?” asked the one who’d jumped on her chest.

“No,” Ashi said without a pause this time. “I think he might be in trouble and I’m trying to find him.”

The furry creatures all scampered a short distance away and had a hurried, whispered conversation. Ashi had better hearing than most but even she could only make out a few words they were saying. They seemed to be deciding if they could trust her or not.

They reached some sort of consensus and came back.

“We have not seen him recently. However, we did hear that he was here yesterday, a few hours before you. Rumer, has it that he took a train east towards the mountains. We will show you the way to the station.”

“Thank you.”

Ashi rubbed the sleep from her eyes and followed the creatures though the dark and quiet streets. Ashi was forced to walk much slower than she normally would because they were so much smaller than her.

The one who’d jumped on her and who seemed to be the leader, started to talk as they walked, “We are the Affers and we owe Jack our lives and our freedom. For years, we were enslaved by some of Aku’s scientists. Our husbands were forced to work in their factories. I and the other women were experimented on.

“Then one day, Samurai Jack came. He defeated the scientists’ robots, destroyed their factories and laboratories. He freed us.”

“Thank you for telling me,” Ashi said as they reached the train station. It seemed Jack helped people whether or not he was responsible for their situation.

Ash’s eyes widened when she saw all the different railway tracks. Several of which seemed to go in the direction of the mountains. “Which train did he take?”

“We do not know,” the Affer told her. “You’ll have to ask around to find out if anyone knows more than us.” They scampered away.

Ashi asked around the station which was slowly filling up with people as trains came and went. Eventually she found a station guard who told her which train to catch. Before getting on, she asked the driver if she knew which station Jack had got off at.

The train driver looked at her uncertainly, “Are you trying to kill him?”

“No.”

“Are you his friend?”

“I… am not his enemy,” Ashi answered truthfully. There was that word again; friend. “I think he’s in trouble.”

The train driver hummed in thought for a moment before shrugging and giving her a smile, “I guess if you did want to hurt him you’d either have threatened me or lied. You won’t have answered like that anyway. I’ll tell you when to get off. You can ride in here with me if you like.”

“Thank you,” Ashi said climbing into the small cab at the front of the train and sat down next to the driver.

The train set off a few minutes later. The two of them sat quietly for a while. Then the driver started to talk, “I know that Samurai Jack is a big hero and that he gives people hope that one day Aku will be defeated but to me, he’ll always be the man who took the time to save a little girl who’d got stuck up a tree.

“I know that’s not a big thing but I was young and scared. I clamed a ladder up to an old treehouse in the woods but one of the boys who used to bully me in school took the ladder away and trapped me up there.

“Jack heard me crying and brought me down safely. Then he showed me how to defend myself so I could fight back next time one of the boys tried to hit me. He’s my hero.”

She laughed suddenly startling Ashi. “I don’t even think he remembers me. He didn’t seem to recognise me yesterday but that might just be because I’m an adult now. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d forgotten though. Saving the day in both big and small ways is just what he does, you know?”

“I think I do,” Ashi said. “Thank you for telling me.”

It seemed everyone had a story of how Samurai Jack had helped and saved them. She wondered what they would all think of her if she told them that not long ago, she’d been trying to kill him.

The train driver and Ashi chatted a little more as the train travelled further and further east, stopping at stations before moving on again. The train driver told Ashi that she was worried about Jack as shared her lunch with Ashi at one of the stations. Apparently, the look on his face has unsettled her when he’d gotten onto her train. Her words strengthened Ashi’s resolve to find him.

A few hours later, the train came to a stop at another station, “This is where he got off. Good luck finding him. I hope he’s okay.”

“Me too,” Ashi said before thanking the train driver again and getting off.

Ashi started to look around this new village for signs of Jack. She entered the village pub and asked the barkeeper if he knew where Jack was. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at her. Ashi sighed, she was starting to get used to that reaction.

“I just want to find him. I think he’s in trouble.” They seemed to relax.

“I’ll show you where he went,” a thickset man in the corner told her getting to his feet. He led her out of the pub.

As they walked down the main street of the village the man started to talk, “This is a farming village. Twenty-five years ago, it just stopped raining here. Our crops wouldn’t grow. We’d have had to leave but then Samurai Jack came. He found that one of Aku’s minions had created a weather machine and was using it to stop it from raining. Samurai Jack destroyed the machine and saved us.

“We hadn’t seen him since then until yesterday. He passed through without talking to anyone.” They reached the edge of the village but the road continued. “He carried on that way,” the man told her.

“Thank you,” Ashi said and continued her journey mulling over everything she had learnt about Jack.

Ashi wondered if it was her training that made her want to find Jack. She’s spent her whole life being trained to find and kill him and, even though she no longer wanted him dead, that sort of mentality was hard to break out of.

She reassured herself that other people seemed worried about him too. If she found him and he was alright but wanted her to leave, she would go. She just had to make sure first.

Jack seemed to have a whole world full of friends. Ashi wondered why he chose to travel alone.

Ashi picked apples off trees at the side of the road and ate them as she walked. In the end, tiredness forced her to lie down just off the road and sleep again.

In the morning, she got up and continued walking until she came to a new town. She started her enquires again. After convinced a man with pale green skin and a large pink nose that she meant Jack no harm, he told her that Jack had flown in his flying machine the day before and promised he would show her where he’d gotten off.

Like everyone else, he had a story to tell, “Samurai Jack saved my house from burning down. I couldn’t afford Aku’s taxes so he sent some of his robots to burn down my home while I was still inside. Jack destroyed the robots, got me out safely and put out the fire before it could do too much damage.”

“Thank you for telling me,” Ashi said as she got onto the flying machine which was already full of all sorts of people and creatures.

Her stomach lurch as it rose into the sky and she stood by the window watching the world go by beneath them. Behind her she heard two beings talking,

“Are you sure she’s the one?”

“Yes, I specifically saw her asking about him.”

**Author's Note:**

> And that’s where the episode started. I hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
